Reading “The Lives of the Twelve Caesars» I am shocked, shocked!, when Suetonius quotes Tiberius: “A free State must have freedom of speech and opinion.” This was the beginning of his rule and he had no scruples in adding: “A good and just prince, invested by the senate with such great and absolute power, must be at the service of the senate and all other citizens.” Quite a reminder of Pujol, much promised and then much stolen.

I write to the lawyer Joan de Gispert: «I’m not quite sure that Tiberius practised what he preached.» My latinist friend answers: «Actually Tiberius started well his rule as emperor but in later years it seems he was extraordinarily cruel. He handed power to his lieutenant Sejanus, who was a sanguinary beast. Too much power as you know leads to horror and corruption. A great general and magnificent administrator, he enriched the State treasury only for his successor, the bestial Caligula, to dilapidate all in three years. He was under the thumb of his mother Livia for much of his life and she eased his way to power by eliminating anyone she could. Hated by his predecessor Augustus, he was forced to leave the woman he loved, Agripina, to marry Augustus’s whore of a daughter Julia. It seems this was the trigger of his unhappiness and later cruelty. At least that’s my opinion as a great enthusiast of classical history and literature.» I answer that both Suetonius and Tacitus give the contrary opinion, that Sejanus and Livia were used by Tiberius, and that Augustus, not so much hated him as thought he was an ass, just like Pla thought Pujol was a snake oil salesman. Both were right. Gispert adds: «It is possible that Tiberius was merely an ass, but an ass that killed and killed.» It is true that asses know how to kick. Never believe an ass or a snake oil salesman when they talk of freedom. My book “The Fall of Pujol’s Empire” from 2003! has the following subtitle: «Tragicomedy in ten acts without intermission. The action takes place all over Catalonia during 24 years: Pati dels Tarongers, Can Brians jail, Hotel Majestic among many sets. Distinguished spectator: the long length of the operetta (24 years) allows for only one performance.» The list of characters includes: the right honourable godfather Jordi Pujol; the heir of Mas Pujol Artur Mas; the Duke of Perejil islet Jose Maria Aznar; Caesar’s son Josep Pujol Ferrusola; the right dishonourable son Jordi Pujol Ferrusola and Oriol Pujol Ferrusola as Cordelia; with Marta Ferrusola in her star role as Lady Macbeth. The operetta did not end in Shakespeare’s Scottish tragedy as I thought, rather in the plays he did not write after the tyrannicide of his Julius Caesar. The second Caesar, Augustus, consolidated Rome, but Tiberius and Caligula nearly destroyed it with their absolute perversity and corruption. Pujol went around Catalonia dressed up as the founding father Caesar Augustus but he was just a vulgar Tiberius and his sons were no Caligulas, if anything Sejanuses. However Marta Ferrusola was the new Livia as portrayed by Robert Graves in his novels about the Emperor Claudius: cruel, manipulator and obsessed with power. When finally Jordi Pujol lost the election the Catalan Livia complained on leaving the Catalan government palace: “It seems as though they have broken into our home to steal.” Who did the stealing? Exactly 21 centuries between Tiberius the Ass and Pujol the Crook.